FIDE office sent to the European Chess Union office the list of Arbiters from Europe who will have the position of Match Arbiters at the upcoming 40th Chess Olympiad in Istanbul. Considering that the ECU President recommended 10 Arbiters and six of them were not accepted, he sent a letter to FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.

At the list sent by FIDE office, the following Arbiters are from Europe:

In his letter to FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, ECU President Silvio Danailov stated the following:

June 13, 2012

To: World Chess FederationMr. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, President

Dear Kirsan,

I am writing this letter in regard to the nomination of Arbiters for the upcoming 40th Chess Olympiad in Istanbul. Namely, on June 11, FIDE office informed the ECU office about the list of Arbiters from Europe nominated for the role at this competition. When we compare the list with the list of 10 Arbiters that I, as the European Chess Union President, recommended, it is obvious that even six Arbiters from our list were not accepted.

I would like to remind you that, for the first time in history, the European Chess Union had a transparent procedure for the nomination of Arbiters by national federations. Even 30 national federations nominated Arbiters and it was not easy to choose 10 candidates among them. I believe that, with this act, FIDE openly showed disrespect for the European Chess Union as a serious continental organization, and for me, as the President of that organization. I have never heard of such a case.

Not accepting four Arbiters, members of national federations which have had court cases against FIDE in CAS, was already announced in the statement of the President of the Turkish Chess Federation. This move represents an unprecedented form of discrimination.

Firstly, having a court case in CAS is stated in the FIDE Statutes as a completely accepted part of legal procedure. Therefore, national federations which are part of that procedure cannot be responsible on any grounds which are not legal. Even if they are responsible, certainly Arbiters are not the first and only who should take responsibility on behalf of their national federations. By the way, it is well known that the Turkish Chess Federation is suing the ECU. Does this mean that the ECU should boycott all the Turkish Arbiters in future?

Secondly, Mr. Mussnig from Austria and Mr. Hansen from Denmark were not accepted, even though they are not members of the above-mentioned federations. We have not received the reasons why they were not accepted. If we knew in advance that there were principles according to which some of the Arbiters should not be delegated, we would find that somewhat understandable. This way, that move is really incomprehensible.

Dear Mr. President, I strongly believe that you will accept these arguments and reconsider the decision on nomination of Arbiters. Therefore I am inviting you to make the first move to bring back the confidence that members of the European chess family and its management had in the World Chess Federation.